Wren Sterling and John Charcol primed for possible sale

The boss of newly rebranded advice firm Wren Sterling and mortgage broker John Charcol is looking to split the infrastructure of the two firms in preparation for a possible future sale.

Ian Darby was installed as executive chairman of the businesses, which included the former Towergate Financial division, after a management buyout earlier this year. Both firms share resources but Darby says he is instituting separate management and infrastructure in the businesses to make them easier to sell off.

He says: “I would not be surprised if, at some juncture in the future, they did not have the same owners.

“Our whole plan is how we get all of this into a new world where we have two separate companies with two separate management teams standing on their own, with their own property, IT infrastructure and trading platforms. They might not [split] but I’m going to structure it in such a way that they could.”